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Friday, September 27, 2013

Vatican
City, 27 September 2013 (VIS) – The Bilateral Commission of the
Holy See and the State of Palestine, which is working on a Global
Agreement following the Basic Agreement, signed on 15 February 2000,
met yesterday in a Plenary Session in the Vatican to acknowledge the
work carried out at an informal level by the joint technical group
following the last official meeting held in Ramallah at the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs of the State of Palestine on 30 January 2013, and
to plan future progress, with the aim of accelerating the concluding
of the Agreement.

The
talks were chaired by Archbishop Antoine Camilleri, under-secretary
for the Holy See’s Relations with States, and by Ambassador Rawan
Sulaiman, assistant minister of Foreign Affairs for Multilateral
Affairs of the State of Palestine. The discussions took place in a
cordial and constructive atmosphere. Taking up the issues already
examined at an informal level, the Commission noted with great
satisfaction the progress achieved in formulating the text of the
Agreement, which deals with essential aspects of the life and
activity of the Catholic Church in Palestine, and encouraged the
efforts of the joint technical group, urging it to complete the
discussions on the remaining parts of the text, the formulation of
which is already at an advanced stage.

Both
Parties agree that the joint technical group will continue its work
in preparation for the next plenary meeting of the Bilateral
Commission, planned for early 2014.

The
Delegation of the Holy See was made up of the following members:
Archbishop Antoine Camilleri, under-secretary for Relations with
States; Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto, apostolic delegate to
Jerusalem and Palestine; Archbishop Antonio Franco, apostolic nuncio;
Msgr. Maurizio Malvestiti, under-secretary of the Congregation for
the Oriental Churches; Msgr. Waldemar Stanisław Sommertag, official
of the section for Relations with States of the Secretariat of State;
Fr. Emil Salayta, judicial vicar of the Latin Patriarchate of
Jerusalem.

The
members of the Palestinian Delegation were: Ambassador Rawan
Sulaiman, assistant minister of Foreign Affairs for Multilateral
Affairs; Ambassador Issa Kassissieh, representative of the State of
Palestine to the Holy See; Ammar Hijazi, deputy assistant minister of
Foreign Affairs for Multilateral Affairs; Azem Bishara, juridical
counsellor of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO); Ammar
Nisnas, counsellor at the Permanent Mission of Palestine to the Holy
See.

Vatican
City, 27 September 2013 (VIS) – Archbishop Dominique Mamberti,
secretary for the Holy See's Relations with States, participated in a
high-level meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on nuclear
disarmament, held in New York on 26 September.

The
archbishop made public his concerns regarding the proliferation of
nuclear weapons into other countries, and commented that the matter
cannot be fully addressed as long as nuclear states hold on to their
arsenals. “Under the terms of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, states
are enjoined to make 'good faith' efforts to negotiate the
elimination of nuclear weapons. Can we say there is 'good faith' when
modernisation programs of the nuclear weapons states continue despite
their affirmations of eventual nuclear disarmament?”.

“It
is now imperative for us to address in a systematic and coherent
manner the legal, political and technical requisites for a world free
from nuclear arms”, he said, emphasising the need “to begin as
soon as possible preparatory work on the Convention or a framework
agreement for a phased and verifiable elimination of nuclear arms”.

Mamberti
concluded, “It is time to counter the logic of fear with the ethic
of responsibility, fostering a climate of trust and sincere dialogue,
capable of promoting a culture of peace, founded on the primacy of
law and the common good, through a coherent and responsible
co-operation between all members of the international community”.

Vatican
City, 27 September 2013 (VIS) – Next Monday, 30 September, the
director of the Holy See Press Office, Federico Lombardi, S.J., will
hold a briefing on the Pope's meeting with the group of eight
cardinals, regarding the nature of the meeting, preparation and
working times involved, and the information that will be available.

“It
is important to remember that the Group is constituted to offer
advice to the Pope and not to make autonomous decisions, that it is a
first meeting which will be followed by others, and that the
participants will abide by criteria of privacy regarding the content
of the consultations”.

Vatican
City, 27 September 2013 (VIS) - Today, the Holy Father appointed
Bishop Jean-Christophe Lagleize as bishop of Metz (area 6,226,
population 1,034,000, Catholics 808,800, priests 372, permanent
deacons 59, religious 674), France. Bishop Lagleize, previously
bishop of Valence, France, was born in Soisy-sous-Montmorency, France
in 1954, was ordained to the priesthood in 1981, and received
episcopal ordination in 2001. He succeeds Bishop Pierre Raffin, O.P.,
whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese the Holy
Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.